Since Jaynelle is a teacher, she let Ernest know that she would prefer to be engaged before the end of the summer, so that they could get a head start on wedding planning before the hectic school year started. But he understood “the end of summer” as the fall / autumn equinox, so in his mind, he still had plenty of time left as the school year ramped up!

In mid-September, Ernest took Jaynelle on a drive to Hamilton. However, on the ride there, she started to feel very sick and nauseated. Eventually, she felt so terrible that he had to pull over and they had a bit of an adventure finding ways to relieve her nausea. Afterwards, they decided to return home and she felt awful for ruining his obvious attempt to make this a special trip. Interestingly, while on their first overseas trip together to Japan, Ernest had also succumbed to food poisoning. They were out and about and Jay had to literally drag him back to the hotel, nurse him back to health, and clean up his multiple messes. Apparently, there’s something about caring for someone when they have vomited that brings a relationship closer together.

The next weekend (ie. late-September), Ernest decided to try proposing again — his “end of summer” deadline was fast approaching after all! Jay totally knew what was happening and even asked, “Are we going to Yorkdale?”. Of course, Ernest denied it and even drove an alternate route. But, they ended up going to Yorkdale Shopping Centre for frozen yogurt anyways which was reminiscent of their “first date”. After they got back in the car, Jay asked, “Are we going to Hamilton?” and of course she was right (even if Ernest denied it again). When they arrived, they hiked a park trail up to an escarpment that overlooked the water. They sat on a nearby bench, Ernest got down on one knee, and she said “Yes”! :)